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Eros and Agape: A New Telling of the Integral Mythos

You can call it Agape or God’s Love (or Parental Love) or Compassion or even the principle of inclusion. In Integral theory, Agape is not just the love of one person for another, it is akin to the holonic tenet of self-immanence (the tenet to complement Eros/self-transcendence on the vertical axis of evolution).

Eros calls us to be better, greater than we are; Agape calls us accept who we are and All-That-Is.
Eros calls us to make the world more whole by perfecting it; Agape calls us to make the world more whole by seeing and feeling and knowing the wholeness that’s already present, even when that wholeness breaks our heart.

Conventional political discussions see politics as a war of winners and losers, right and wrong, a clash of polar opposites in perpetual war with each other. The red states at war with the blue states; the individual in a clash with the society or the state; classes at war; sexes at war; the powerful at war to with the oppressed; the enlightened at war with the ignorant; the Nietzschean great men and women at war with the herd; and so on.

Conventional political discussions don’t usually talk about Eros and Agape, but ours in this forum sometimes do. Because in each conflict in our midst, we feel drawn by transpersonal forces or sense of identity to overcome our challenges, moving in the direction of Progress’s arrow (Eros) or to accept the dignity of Being, conserving hard-won order and coherence and stability from tradition and previous generations (Agape).

In my own Integral Konstruct (Lingua-U, a model based on sacred linguistics), the word “Eros” (𝌩⚎) signifies the Yin Master at the Seat of Actualization at ⚍𝌀 (Ʒ or/zh/), The Letter of Enfoldment, the climax of the 4th-person-perspective known as Systemic-Mind (teal), at the gate of the Second Tier. The way I tell its story, Eros is the Arrow that turns every Error or Errand in the Systemic-Mind into Motion. Eros receives the Yang of Empathy and Emptiness and combines it with the Yin of Ʒɛdiɛ (a word from the Chinese 折疊 for Folding) and Ʒɛnmi (a word from the Chinese 縝密 for Careful, Deliberate). The result is a powerful force that is capable of Ʒænlɪŋ (a word from the Chinese 佔領 for Occupying, Holding a Position).

Thus, when we talk about “Eros” in politics, we are really talking about a force that isn’t visible to everyone. At the first-person-perspective, Eros is nowhere in sight, there is Power at the Letter of Positivity; at the second-person-perspective, Eros has yet to appear, but there is the Thug of Thought or Myth at the Letter of Synthesis; at the third-person-perspective, Eros has not yet come, but there is Technique and Truth at the Letter of Tending. Only with the arrival of Systemic-Mind at the fourth-person-perspective which opens with the Throne of Evolution does the Throne of Eros arrive as its ultimate resolution.

It’s the job of Eros to seal the arrival of Evolution itself into a form of greater self-awareness. Like a black widow spider’s mate, E-RO-s is willing to risk the massive disorder at the heart of Ent-RO-py to get what it wants, even death itself. Eros will take enormous risks – to the point of threatening all that has come before it. The old systems are being torn down, but new ones have yet to rise. The status quo is maligned, but anarchy threatens. The Yang phase of the Second Tier ends with Eros’s fruition, but it is a perilous ending, a rising up and a centering into tremendous difficulty and uncertainty. Eros has created Chaos, which must be addressed.

As the Lingua-U continues to tell the story of consciousness, the 5th-person-perspective known as Global-Mind (turquoise) swings into view after the departure of the Throne of Eros. It comes in the month of the White Horse with the Throne of Gaia which presents the words Abysmal and the Apocalypse. Its purpose is manifold: to rescue the Earth, the seat of our Existence itself, in a time of perilous urgency, through enacting Konstructs which can create a civilized culture and sustainable economy and ecology.

Symbolized by the Element of Earth (⚏ or Double Yin) and containing both the words for Gaia and Earth itself, the 5th-person-perspective, is humanity’s last best shot at avoiding collapse of all that has come before it. Its central most concern – the 𝌮𝌃 or Yin-Yin-Yin-Yin-Yin-Yung spot – is the Conservative impulse itself as the Throne of Communion (the holonic tenet associated with conservation).

Whereas the Systemic-Mind (green/teal) was ready to take any risk to thwart the First Tier systems and replace them with something new, the Global-Mind is about nitty-gritty Governance and refining Attunements, not Shocking the Systems. Furthermore, the Global-Mind is concerned with Collectivism. The words for both Capitalism (𝌯⚌) and Equalization (𝌯⚏) are polarities which are ultimately reconciled in Communes or Communism (𝌯𝌅) at the Throne of Adjustment. The words for Commune and Consciousness are identical to six degrees of energy.

In my story, there are arguably no words of greater significance to the 5th-person-perspective than Agape (𝌮𝌂), Care (𝌮𝌂), and Compassion (𝌮𝌃). These three words are Yung Masters at the Seats of Structure and Concern respectively for the Letter of Constructing at the heart of the Turquoise structure. Remembering that Eros was the culminating energy of the 4th-person-perspective, Agape arrives to tame its excesses and correct its distortions. The Letter of Constructing basically sees the world and all of reality as a single collective, with each part a valuable unit of the group, all of which require care.

Care is extended to all, and it is this care which inspires all efforts at ameliorating harm and alleviating pathologies. Caring works by appreciating what has been unappreciated and conserving what has been mistreated or neglected. Agape, Caring, and Compassion are not the only values of the Letter of Constructing, but they are essential to this retelling of the story of Agape and Eros. Eros sought Pleasure and Treasure and brought Chaos; Agape must continue the story by riding in a White Horse to serve, govern, create, and make conscious.

The story of the 5th-person-perspective comes to a close with the Letter of Qualification (Q or ⚏𝌀). Many failed creations and cultures and constructs must be disqualified. Only those which contribute to Quality will meet the test of thrivability, survivability in synchronization with the last Konstructs standing. In the final analysis, the Quagmire created by the First Tier and early Second Tier of consciousness becomes a Quandry (𝌲𝌅). Hope remains, but if the Quandry is not resolved, the threat of Extinction (𝌳𝌄) is right around the corner.